I've Made My Choice
by Elizabeth Tudor
Summary: Oneshot, post AWE. The world is shrinking, the legends dying. Elizabeth has one last choice to make.


**_A/N: _My version of what happens after the movies end. You need to read between the lines a bit. Oh, and I really am sorry if I make any horrible, glaring mistakes, I wrote and posted this at 2 a.m. If everything seems a bit off, I'm claiming artistic liscence, so Read, Review, and Enjoy. Oh, and it has been updated and tweaked slightly.**

"And he sailed off into the sunset, on his way to many more adventures," the woman finished. The story had taken a long time to tell, but throughout it, the children sitting at her feet has listened raptly, entranced by the story of treachery and bravery and adventure. Even the adults had listened, scarcely daring to draw breath lest it break the woven spell of words that filled the room.

"What happened to Elizabeth?" one little boy couldn't resist asking, his deep brown curls spilling into his innocent chocolate-colored eyes. The woman smiled fondly and ruffled his hair. She was old, older than anyone else in the room, but still only looked to be in her late twenties.

"She waited faithfully for Will to come every ten years, and became friends with Jack. He pretended he didn't care what happened to her, but he often visited her to see that she was all right. Elizabeth never could bear to leave the sea though."

"And what about Jack? Did he ever find the fountain?"

"Yes, he did," she answered. "He drank from the fountain, and lived on to have many more adventures to tell about, far too many for tonight. Look! The sun's almost down. Why don't you watch for the green flash?" As one, everyone in the room turned to the window to watch the sun disappear. And one of the adults there, a young woman, couldn't say for sure but thought she might have seen something, almost too quick for the eye to follow…

But she was distracted by a snort from one of the other grown-ups, a man. "Poppycock!" he muttered. "Rubbish! Stuff like that can't happen, especially not now in the twenty-first century. Old legends are dead!"

"You'd be surprised," a quiet voice from near the door said. The young woman started with surprise and turned toward the stranger. He must have just come in, she decided, because he certainly wasn't there before. She would remember him, odd-looking as he was, with cocoa-butter skin, short black hair, a teasing smile, and sly, haunting black eyes. His eyes seemed to have an odd depth to them, almost like the storyteller's, as though he'd seen far more than he was capable of telling.

The storyteller smiled. "It's time?" she asked, notes of apprehension and eagerness vying in her voice. The stranger smiled and nodded. The storyteller took a deep breath. "I'm ready," she said quietly.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," the stranger said with concern, watching her. She shook her head.

"I want to."

"All right then."

Without another word he walked silently out the door, across the beach and down to the waters edge, where his small sailboat was waiting. The storyteller joined him. None of the people in the room made any move to follow them.

Wordlessly the stranger worked to loosen the sails and get the boat underway. A light breeze carried them out into the ocean. Only then did he speak.

"Will's missed you. I have too. But think… if you join, then you'll really never die, leave all this behind too."

"I know. But I want to. If I join the crew I can see him."

"There's something else too, isn't there?"

"Yes. The world is smaller. Legends are dying, mythical beings are gone. My place in the world is vanishing. I'm starting to attract attention. If I'm to fall in this world, I want to be alongside my friends to do it." The stranger nodded slightly, accepting her words.

"It's your choice, Elizabeth. I'm joining the _Dutchman's_ crew because I've nothing left here. My line is dead, my friends are gone, except you and Will. You'll be the first woman aboard though, and you have a family here."

"I know," she said, "and I'll miss them, but I've told them the story, and I've made my choice, Jack. Besides," she added, with the ghost of a smile, "I won't be the only girl for long. Last I talked with AnaMaria, a few decades back, she was getting fairly bored with the Navy."

"Fair enough. We're in it together then." He flashed her a quick smile, and for a moment he looked like the old Captain Jack Sparrow again, before he had seen the people he cared about die one by one, before he had seen his family line erased, his name and legend fade till he was nothing but a footnote in the history books, his world change till he was no longer a part of it. Before he'd survived for too long.

The woman had just time to return his smile before the sea heaved and an enormous ship rose from the depths. A rope ladder was flung over the side, and both ascended, the woman carrying a small chest. A figure stood at the rail, eagerly greeting them. The next moment the ship vanished from sight as quickly as it had appeared, leaving only the small sailboat bobbing in the waves. The Turner family in the small house on the beach looked at each other. No words where needed. All of them now knew that the old legends never really die, and that they had just seen one. The young woman smiled slightly. She had the feeling that she'd be watching quite a lot more sunsets.


End file.
